What should you do with the wine you’re not intending to drink straight away? Before anything else, it’s essential to keep in mind that only a few fine wines get aged well for years on end as they should be consumed within a few years of their release. Investing in professional-grade wine storage is crucial if you plan on purchasing wines to age.
Essential Wine Storage Tips
Wine collecting may appear like a simple and enjoyable hobby, but several factors are considered before embarking on this venture. After learning the basics, you can start collecting, organizing, and storing your wine the right way, so your investment remains safe.
Keeping your wines safe before you open them can be done with a few simple guidelines:
1. Keep Your Wines Cool
Wine’s biggest enemy is heat, and a temperature above 70° F will age it faster than what’s usually desired. If the temperature gets too high, your wine will become mushy, resulting in a flat aroma and flavors.
The ideal temperature for wines is between 45° F and 65° F, with 55° F mentioned as nearly perfect. It doesn’t matter if your bottle storage runs a few degrees warmer, as long as you open the bottles within a few years of the release date.
2. Be Mindful Of The Cooling Temperature
The wine could be kept for up to two months in your refrigerator, but it’s not recommended for extended storage. It’s required foods be stored in refrigerators below 45°F to be kept safe, and the lack of moisture could cause the corks to dry out, making them dangerous to drink.
Don’t store your wine in unheated garages in winter, where it could freeze, or in refrigerators left for hours. A cork could be pushed out of the liquid if it turns to ice.
3. Place The Wine Bottles Horizontally
Using a horizontal wine rack or a wine cellar such as Wine Cellar HQ for bottles with corks is important to preserve your drink properly. Corks kept moist during storage at an angle and on their sides improve long-term stability and prevent seepage and premature aging. Although it’s not essential to keep screw-top wine bottles upright, horizontal storage still allows maximum space and easy access while storing your liquor.
If stored incorrectly, the wine ends up drying out the cork, shrinking a little and becoming brittle. It’s long been believed wine should be protected from the oxidization of dry and cracked corks. Many argue sparkling wines need to be stored upright while most agree all corked wines should be kept upright to keep the cork wet.
It’s essential to serve white and sparkling wines cold, but storing them in your fridge for a long time isn’t recommended. No matter how the wine is stored, it’ll eventually dry out the cork because the lack of humidity causes it to dry out eventually. Instead, keep white wine and sparkling wine in the refrigerator for a few days before intending to drink them.
4. Store In A Place With Proper Humidity
It’s best to store your wine in constant humidity levels because wine ages the most in damp environments. Also, extreme humidity levels in your wine cellar or storage facility can affect the longevity of your wine. The corks of your bottles may dry out at a low humidity level, leaving your wine vulnerable to the effect of oxygen.
In contrast, a higher humidity level may cause the labels to peel off, making the bottles challenging to sell and display. Humidity levels should vary between 60 and 68 percent in the wine cellar.
5. Turn The Lights Off
It’s essential not to expose long-term stored wines to direct light, particularly sunlight. Vintners utilize colored glass bottles to prevent sun damage and premature aging of wine. While it’s unlikely to damage your wine directly, light from household bulbs can fade your wine labels over time. The mercury from fluorescent bulbs contains ultraviolet light levels, so incandescent bulbs are a bit safer.
But as much as possible, turn the lights off in the area where wines are being kept.
6. Avoid Shaking And Vibrations
There are researches saying vibrations will accelerate chemical reactions in wine and eventually damage it. Even subtle vibrations from electronic appliances could cause some collectors to panic, though little is known about these effects.
Older wines subjected to significant vibrations and shake could keep the sediment from settling, possibly making them unappealingly gritty. Does this create a problem for your short-term storage unless you live near a railway or are hosting rock concerts? No, but remember not to shake your wine bottles inappropriately.
7. Invest In A Wine Fridge
Keeping good wine requires a wine refrigerator, which is also known as a wine cooler. Your storage space will always be relaxed, dark, and moist as wine refrigerators keep your stored wine cold and dry at 50-60° F with perfect humidity and secure from cross-contamination caused by odors from food in the fridge.
A top-quality refrigerator will also have separate cooling settings for bottles of champagne. In case pricing and expenditures are a concern, an efficient wine fridge is merely a method for protecting your investment because wine can be a significant investment by itself. The reviews for coolers are critical before you buy one.
8. Serve Wine With The Right Temperature
Keeping wine cold is different than storing it, which is why wine serving temperatures change constantly. Serving wine at the ideal temperature allows the atoms to move freely within their chemical properties and is an indispensable facet of the wine service process. As a result, you taste them as the flavors, scents, and aromas winemakers have designed them. Take advantage of some luxury wine tasting tips if you’ve just begun your wine-drinking journey.
The ethanol molecules dominate and take center stage in a wine that’s warmed too much. However, if the wine is served too cold, it mutes many desirable flavors and aromas. Keeping the perfect temperature when you’re about to drink is crucial to the overall wine experience.
Conclusion
There are many reasons why wine is good for you. With perfect storage facilities, wine lasts even for centuries when kept in excellent condition. The opposite is true as poor storage can ruin even the best of wines. Invest in a wine cellar and let your wine adventures amaze you!
Carol
Information sourced by the author for luxuryactivist.com. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available. Images are for illustration purposes only.
